Chapter 20: Inner Circle"Every generation or so, we get someone like you, Delilah," Talia said, placing her hand to the girl's shoulder. "It must be a frustrating experience, but its certainly not without its perks. What would you give to be able to use your magic right, pretty girl?"
Delilah frowned softly, her brow knit as she looked up at the woman in front of her. "What-- Anything."
"Good. Now, shh," Talia said, placing her hand to Delilah's forehead.
The younger girl gasped, flinching as she felt heat rushing from the place where Talia's skin touched hers.
Delilah let out a soft cry of pain as the heat grew more intense, light consuming her vision. Her legs gave out from under her and she fell to her knees in the dirt of the garden. The pain grew more intense, the skin across the rest of her body prickling and growing hot.
She screamed like it would save her. The pain was so intense, she felt she must be dying. The light was so bright, she knew she had gone blind. She felt her lungs giving force to her scream, but she no longer heard her own voice, nor the sounds of the wind or birds she had heard moments before. The moment was just a beat, a pulse, and then, all at once, the sound and her vision returned with an actual physical force that propelled her backwards onto the ground. The dirt around her shifted, falling over her arms as she panted on the floor of Oswin's garden.
"Delilah?" Luther asked, stepping forward suddenly. Talia gripped his shoulder, ceasing his movement forward.
"Give her a moment," Talia said.
Delilah placed her hand to her chest, feeling her heart beating steadily, albeit a bit fast, behind her ribs. She placed her hands to the dirt and pushed herself to her feet. "Give your wand a try," Talia said.
She patted herself to find her wand, unable to remember how having a body worked for just a moment. When she pulled the wand out, she knew it immediately felt better than before. When she cast the spell over her head, it came out fluidly. There was no stutter, no explosion, no discharge in an unintended direction. It must have been how magic felt for everyone else!
"It's so smooth! I can control it," she said with a gentle awe in her voice.
Talia smirked and nodded. "Yes, not without a few sacrifices, but i know you'll find that the power is worth it."
"Sacrifices?" Delilah asked, noticing for the first time the white marks on her arms.
"Welcome to the inner circle, Delilah."
"Horrible," Delilah muttered as she came upon hour two of staring at her new face in the mirror. "It's so ugly! I'm hideous now. I'm a speckled monster. Loch Ness Delilah."
"I don't think you look ugly, Dee," a voice said from the doorway.
She glared at Leo through the mirror.
"How could you not? Look at my face!"
"Yeah," he said. "I think it's a beautiful face."
She turned around to face him, furious for just a moment before vulnerability took hold. "It... You really think so?"
"Yeah, I do. I always have. There's nothing wrong with you, Delilah," he said with more confidence than she had ever seen from him.
She stepped toward him, her hand to his face. He started, not having expected her to come to close.
"You're a good guy, Leo. I hadn't noticed before."
He smiled crookedly. "Thanks," he said.
"Delilah! Leo! Come down for Obbie's birthday cake!" Oswin's voice called from the base of the stairs.
Delilah smiled back. "Guess we should go, huh?" She kissed his cheek. "Thanks," she said and walked out of her room.
Oblique's teenage birthday went without a hitch. Oswin noted that her sons looked rather similar, but at the same time, there was something very different about them.
Oblique seemed to be much stronger than Leo, in personality and in appearance. There was something disconcerting about her youngest son that she couldn't quite put her finger on.
And he was very much into practicing his magic. HE took the craft much more seriously than Leo ever did.
"And what kind of garbage tinker-toy are you trying to cast magic with?" Aunt Morgan asked the birthday boy when he was upstairs later that night.
"It's the wand my mom gave me," he said, cocking a brow at her.
"It's only true use should be for kindling," she said, rubbing her fingers together as if just the thought of someone touching that wand had soiled her hands.
"So what do you propose I use? I can't practice without one."
"Come with me, Handsome. I have a solution. Auntie always does," she said, bringing him to Luther's room and pulling something out of the dresser.
"Now, try this," she told him.
"It's a bit crooked," he said, taking the wand.
"Yes, you should get along with it famously."
"Now that," she said fiercely. "Is how a wand should feel."
"It's incredible. Much different. Better."
"Of course it is. I'd never steer you wrong, Darling. Just between you and me, you're my favorite," she said with a light smirk.
Oblique grinned as his aunt walked away.
